REVIEWS

Allen&Heath Xone:DX – Gearjunkies Review

A professional DJ controller with integrated, high quality soundcard. That’s a way to describe the new Allen&Heath Xone:DX. But that would be missing a whole lot of points of the digital DJ system that Allen&Heath and Serato co-developed. The Xone:DX controller in combination with Serato Itch software is a professional and robust system for the Digital DJ. As a vinyl-DJ with relative extreme little Digital DJ experience, I’ve got the opportunity to check out the Xone:DX and write up my first impressions!

Elysia Mpressor plugin – Gearjunkies review

The German Elysia company is known for their high-end compressors which they have been building for several years now. They have teamed up with the designers of Brainworx and used their vast knowledge of discrete components and translate them to the digital path. The result Mpressor plugin is available as VST, RTAS, TDM and AU. I’ve tested the VST version in Cubase 5.1.1. To get it right I’ve taken longer than the standard 14 day trial period you can get provided that you have an iLok dongle.

Ableton Suite 8 – A Gearjunkies Review

Ableton Live, from a simple sequencer to a serious Digital Audio Workstation. Ableton Live 8 Suite, also known as the XL version, is the version of Live that comes with a huge amount of instruments and library of sounds. About no less then 1600 sounds divided among ten instruments. The GUI (graphic user interface) stands out against the GUI’s of the other well known DAW’s by its simplicity. Which in fact works easier and better.

Steinberg Cubase 5 – Gearjunkies Review

First Impressions – The first impression of Cubase is … fresh! Clearly Steinberg has given Cubase 5 a little spot of new paint. The overal layout is slightly darker which is more soothing on the eyes. But there is more that meets the eyes. As we attended the MusikMesse last year, Steinberg had explained the work they had done ‘under the hood’. They had rewritten much of the code for the visuals in Cubase which makes it more stable, plus they had done a lot of work on the audio engine and other processes that run in the background.